Soprano Home Movies


"Soprano Home Movies" is the 78th episode
of the HBO television drama series The Sopranos and the 13th episode of the sixth season. It served as the midseason premiere to the second part of Season 6, whose broadcast HBO split in two.
The episode was written by supervising producers Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, series creator/executive producer David Chase, and executive producer Matthew Weiner, and it was directed by frequent series director Tim Van Patten. The episode first aired in the United States on April 8, 2007.

Starring

* = credit only

Guest starring

Synopsis

In Brooklyn, a party is held for Phil Leotardo, who has recently returned from the hospital after a long convalescence following his heart attack. Phil tells the Lupertazzi crime family that he is ready to settle down and "enjoy grandchildren."
A flashback to the episode "All Due Respect" shows Tony Soprano fleeing when Johnny Sack is arrested by the FBI. A teenage boy sees Tony throw a pistol into the snow and retrieves the gun. In the current episode, the boy is arrested on a drug charge and the gun is found in his possession, with hollow-point bullets in it. Essex County Sheriffs ostentatiously arrest Tony on a gun charge based on the boy's testimony. He is briefly jailed but his attorney, Neil Mink, easily secures his release on bail. The gun charge is soon dropped, and no longer hangs over his approaching birthday weekend. The FBI later includes this charge in building a RICO case against Tony.
Tony and Carmela travel to Janice and Bobby's upstate New York cabin to celebrate Tony's birthday. Tony and Bobby bond as they fire a customized Armalite AR-10 A4C Carbine assault rifle, Bobby's birthday present to Tony, in the nearby woods. Tony gives Bobby a major new responsibility in the Soprano crime family and hints at a still higher position. Bobby muses how suddenly and silently death can happen in their lives as gangsters: "You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?" Tony comments that Bobby has never "popped his cherry" in contrast with Bobby's father. Bobby replies that he has come close, but that his father never wanted it for him.
Carmela phones A.J.; he answers the phone, not at the pizzeria where he is now working, but in his parents' bed with Blanca. A group of their friends also come for a party.
After dinner Tony, Carmela, Bobby, and Janice play Monopoly, arguing about house rules, drinking, and joking. Tony is angry with Janice when she tells a story that discredits their father. He makes a crude joke about her, apologizes, but then makes another. Bobby punches Tony hard in the head. There is a messy and ferocious fight, ending with Tony on the floor, bloodied, unable to rise. Panicking, Bobby tries to drive off drunk and backs into a tree. He returns and apologizes. In the morning, Tony and Carmela are persuaded to stay, but Tony is obsessed that he lost the fight.
In the afternoon the women apprehensively watch Tony and Bobby leave, ostensibly for a game of golf, in fact for a meeting with two Québécois. In exchange for a large amount of expired prescription medication at a heavy discount, Tony agrees to a hit on the brother-in-law of one of the Québécois and asks Bobby to personally take care of it. Bobby is compelled to accept. They return to the house and Carmela and Tony leave for home. Bobby immediately sets off for Montreal for the hit; he kills the man at point-blank range. He returns to his lakefront house, picks up his daughter and hugs her. Back home, Tony watches a "Soprano Home Movies" DVD given to him by Janice as a birthday present: it shows himself and Janice, children playing.

First appearance

Writing

"Soprano Home Movies" was written by four of the show's five principal season six writers: supervising producers and writing team Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, series creator and showrunner David Chase and executive producer Matthew Weiner, who had been promoted from co-executive producer before the production of "Soprano Home Movies" began. The four developed the episode's story outline along with executive producer
Terence Winter.
"Soprano Home Movies" is Frolov and Schneider's fourth and final official writing credit for the series; it is Chase's twenty-seventh and Weiner's ninth. Chase and Weiner collaborated on two more of the season's episodes: "Kennedy and Heidi" and "The Blue Comet."

Filming

"Soprano Home Movies" was the first episode of the final nine episodes to be produced, following a six-month-long production hiatus. In preparation for shooting the episode, series creator/executive producer David Chase held several rehearsals with the lead actors.
The scenes at the lakefront vacation home were filmed over two weeks in June 2006 in Putnam Valley, New York. Additional interior shots were filmed six months later at Silvercup Studios, New York, where a replica of the cabin had been built in a sound stage. The lake seen multiple times in the episode is Lake Oscawana. The scenes of Tony and Bobby fishing were filmed on location on the lake but much closer to the shore than it appears in the episode. The scenes set in Montreal were actually filmed in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Filming of the scenes set in New Jersey and the Soprano residence took place on location in Essex County, New Jersey, and in Silvercup Studios.
While filming the cabin fight scene between Tony and Bobby in Silvercup Studios, Steve Schirripa accidentally headbutted James Gandolfini. The fight scene was choreographed but Gandolfini didn't step out of the way in time. His nose was bloodied but not broken. The real headbutting was kept in the episode.

Cast notes

Ratings

"Soprano Home Movies" drew an average of 7.66 million viewers when it first aired on HBO on Sunday, April 8, 2007, in the United States. This estimate was done by Nielsen Ratings. This was a significant drop from the 2006 season premiere episode, "Members Only", which attracted 9.47 million viewers and the lowest ratings for a Sopranos premiere since the season two opening episode, "Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist's Office...", which drew roughly the same number of viewers as "Soprano Home Movies".

Critical response

The episode was critically acclaimed. Tom Biro of television webblog TV Squad gave the episode a favorable review, writing "All in all, big thumbs up from me."
Marisa Carroll of PopMatters called the midseason premiere "stellar" and wrote that "David Chase repeatedly re-imagines ordinary family scenarios—like a weekend trip to the mountains—in brutal, gangster terms. Such signature exaggerations remain both hilarious and unsettling." She awarded the episode a score of 9 out of 10.
Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle praised the episode, writing "the series remains as vital and interesting as ever There may be no better way to go forward into this Sopranos swan song."
Kim Reed of Television Without Pity gave the midseason premiere an A−, writing "...while, on the surface, not much happened, I think there were a ton of callbacks to previous episodes and that familiar Soprano tension was used to good effect."
Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune wrote "this is loose, contemplative Sopranos storytelling at its best."
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly was impressed with the midseason premiere and wrote that, despite not being a very eventful episode on the surface, "everything happened".
Alan Sepinwall of The Star Ledger gave "Soprano Home Movies" a positive review and praised it for featuring the character of Bobby Bacala in a more prominent role, writing "The hour was largely a refresher course on Tony, Janice and their history, but it also gave Bacala the dignity he's so often been deprived by the writers."
Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times gave the episode a mixed review, calling it "solemn" and wrote that "even before last season the series had started to sag in places, a creative fatigue that matched the main characters' weariness and also the audience's."
Brian Zoromski of IGN awarded "Soprano Home Movies" a score of 9.5 out of 10, citing the calm, subtle storytelling as a great strength.

Awards

In 2007, "Soprano Home Movies" was nominated in four categories for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. The episode was submitted for consideration in the category of Outstanding Drama Series. This led to a nomination and the show—which was judged by six episodes from the second part of the sixth season, including "Soprano Home Movies"—won.
It was also nominated but failed to win in the categories of Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series, Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series, and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
The episode was also submitted for Emmy consideration in the categories of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series ; however, it was not nominated.
In 2008, Tim Van Patten was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series, but lost out to Mad Men's Alan Taylor, also a director for The Sopranos, who happened to win the Emmy Award for directing "Kennedy and Heidi" at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards.